Santander Consumer Bank could issue a Eu250m Pfandbrief as soon as tomorrow (Tuesday), with a seven year maturity expected, and bankers anticipate further opportunistic supply this week, with last week’s successes deemed evidence that the market remains constructive as December nears.

The German Santander subsidiary completed a European roadshow on Friday marketing an inaugural sub-benchmark debut covered bond, having indicated that the mortgage-backed deal would have a maturity of seven to 10 years. The issuer currently has just one mortgage Pfandbrief outstanding, a Eu10m issue priced in July.

Leads LBBW, Natixis, Santander and UniCredit announced this (Monday) morning that the new issue could be launched as soon as tomorrow and will have a size of Eu250m, no-grow, with the balance of feedback pointing towards a seven year maturity.

Oma Savings Bank is the only other issuer with a publicly announced deal in the pipeline, starting a roadshow today for a debut sub-benchmark issue expected next week.

However, syndicate bankers said more euro supply – including benchmark issues – is likely to be brought to market this week, given that the time for issuance is running out as the Christmas period approaches.

“Looking at the calendar, I think supply will probably keep coming until the end of next week, more or less,” said one. “After that there is a question of whether investors will want to put their money to work, even though there is a lot of money still around.”

Another syndicate banker, however, questioned how many deals were left to be done.

“My impression is that from now things will be fairly quiet to the end of the year,” he said. “This month has been busy, and many of the issuers who had something left to do have already got it done.

“There is time for opportunistic, Eu500m trades, but probably not for those that have strategic trades that require time to prepare.”

So far this month, Eu8bn of benchmark supply has been issued, already more than the Eu6.75bn issued in the whole of November 2016, albeit well below the Eu17bn issued in November 2015 – a year of particularly heavy supply.

Last week just Eu1bn of benchmark covered bonds were issued, down from Eu4.25bn in the previous week. Market participants said US market participants’ absence during Thanksgiving, although not directly affecting the covered bond market, gave bankers an opportunity to take a breather, as only one euro benchmark bond was launched in the FIG space in the last two days of the week, a Eu500m senior unsecured FRN for Jyske on Thursday.

“People were happy for the excuse to take a break,” said a syndicate banker.

Both last week’s new benchmarks were issued on Tuesday, with a Eu500m four year Pfandbrief for Berlin Hyp attracting final demand approaching Eu2bn at a spread of mid-swaps minus 17bp and a yield of minus 0.108%. Though bankers noted the deal was an unusual case – the issuer targeting investor demand for triple-A, short dated paper – they said it showed the market remains very receptive to the right deal.

On the same day, Norway’s Eika Boligkreditt attracted over Eu900m of orders to a Eu500m long seven year covered bond, and on Wednesday, Wüstenrot Bausparkasse was able to upsize an inaugural eight year covered bond to Eu300m on the back of more than Eu550m of orders.